By Neil Jones | Jurgen Klopp expects to be without Andy Robertson until January with the Liverpool defender set to undergo surgery on a shoulder injury.
The 29-year-old suffered the issue while on international duty for Scotland last week, and will now be sidelined for around three months, in what is a sizeable blow to the Reds’ ambitions this season.
“He will be out for a while,” Klopp confirmed ahead of his side’s Merseyside derby clash with Everton.
“In my experience, you only see the real extent of the injury when they look into it.
“But [it will be] around three months. I’ve not seen a lot of times that it’s earlier. Robbo is a quick healer, but we have to make sure the structure is correct before he starts all the normal stuff [in full training] again, then he has to be ready for that.
“In my experience you can train pretty quickly again but not football-specific so because you have to be careful of challenges and all these kind of things so he will be out for a while
Robertson’s absence – he could miss as many as 18 games in all competitions – means Kostas Tsimikas should get a chance in Liverpool’s starting XI.
The Greek international is expected to start against Everton, but Klopp believes he has other options he can turn to, with the Reds competing on multiple fronts, at home and abroad, in the coming weeks.
“Thank God it is not only Kostas we have,” he said. “Because with the amount of games we have, we would already be a bit short.
“But we have Joe Gomez who can play the position, Luke Chambers and other young boys who show up in training quite frequently.
“Kostas is definitely the most experienced in the position but he cannot play all the games from now on, so we need other options as well and we have to make sure we make all of them.”
Liverpool will welcome back Cody Gakpo from injury for Saturday’s game, with the Netherlands forward having returned to training this week. Stefan Bajcetic and Thiago Alcantara remain sidelined.
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